Good luck

Miloh.

You need to play politics. Try to find someone very important at the University, like the head football coach, and invite him to the model club. Provide him a free airplane and teach him how to fly. If the University has to choose between the football coach and the housing development, I would expect to see bulldozers heading for the houses.

It sounds like the University person is a whimp. It's like they are asking the complainers "is this ok"? They'll just keep complaining until you're kicked out of there.

I read this thread and this sucks, around where i live there is six flying fields all setup on county preserve property within fifteen miles of my house. doesn't other counties in other states setup flying fields for rc. the flying field i fly at is about 1/4 mile of a high end housing area, they can see the planes but a i'm sure they don't hear them because one of them came by and said they lived there for a year before they knew there was a flying field there also he flys rc planes. i would check with county forest preserves and see about setting one up, mine charges 35$ a year permit which isn't bad they even mow and roll the field and collect the garbage.

Piper_Chuck, we kind of feel the same way but the UVA person is in public relations so it is her job to try and make everyone happy. But unfortunately your right, the complainers will get an inch and take a mile.

We have talked to Parks and Recreation about takeing over the land and using it for a canoo drop off point at the river which is right between us and the country club and they are possibly interested. It turns out that UVA is now only managing the property and another state entitiy actually owns it so Parks and Reck might be able to take over. And if they did, it would be a lot harder for the complainers to make any headway with, "I know the noise is within regulations, it's just annoying!"

Inverticle

Sorry to hear about the situation your in but across the country
I'm sure this very same thing is reoccurring time and time again.

Been there done that !

I don't want to sound negative but from what
I've seen in my many years in this hobby. Once the complaints start,
look for a new location. Do what you must to keep the field you have
until you can re-locate. Of course , this only applies to glo or gas
airfields because as you know the electrics generate no noise at all.

As far as the laws, Can't comment on that . I'm sur that the local laws
in VA are different than those up here in MA.

Is electric the future of the hobby ? Well , I suppose it depends on where
you are and the relationship you have with your neighbors.

For sure , electrics are more widely accepted in rural areas for obvious
reasons.

Again , I don't want to sound negative, but if you want to fly glo or gas
start looking for a new site. It's only a matter of time.


Good luck with this

Roby

Oh great, one of those touchy feely "make everyone happy" people. She probably has no idea that the country club whiners don't want everyone happy, they want everyone to comply with their arrogant view of the world. She shouldn't be negotiating, she should be helping people understand policies that someone with a backbone have implemented.
This is why the club needs to recruit additional support before you give up any more ground to these selfish people. You were there first and you provide a public recreation facility. You need to help someone in an authority position within the University, county, state, etc recognize this and tell the whiners if they don't like it they should not have bought the house. Help the authorties understand the benefits you provide to the community so they can tell the small number of complainers to shut up. This kind of thinking, and decision making, is probably beyond the capabilities of the public relations person. This is the same kind of situation airports face when a new development is built in the flight path and a couple years later people begin complaining about the noise. You were there first, the people who bought/built knew, or should have known, about your field, complaining after the fact is just too bad.
Getting another group to take it over may help. A group near me recently built a car race track. An individual began complaining about it. The county has forced the car track to close. However, there's a bright spot. It seems the person who complains is quite an annoyance to the county, he complains about everything. The county told the organizers of the car track that they need to get a special use permit for the car track. Once they have this permit, the county will tell the complainer to STFU.

Right On!

Remember that money and position talks. Unfortunatally the home owners stick in probably bigger than yours. Good luck and welcome to the reality of class in the USA.

Can you talk them into a compromise, like no 2-stroke after 6 pm weekday & after 3 pm weekend? Since they don't complain so much about the decibel level, but the sound quality, if the 4-stroke engines sound a lot like lawn mower, why do they not complain about the lawn mowers, or do they? I think I could survive if I have to fly 4-stroke only.

Chris77

In some areas it is a matter of having available land to setup a flying field. Land in the Washington, DC area is becoming more and more scarce. With urban sprawl, there is less land for flying fields. With neighbors nearby the noise issue is a big one. A prominate field in my area is about to loose their field due to a new housing development being built. Another club that also is on county land was pushed to another location. Even though the county has given them land they were still moved for a soccer field complex. Land is at a premium. People joked about glowing in the dark but it looks like finding a cleaned up SuperFund site will be the way to go. Cheap land and homes cannot be put on them. Besides, with the toxic waste there I will only stay for 5 hours instead of the usual 8

The idea of 4-strokes and electrics only has come up an I would be all for it. But most members of our club don't beleive that would work because they generally put out the same DB levels as 2-strokes. But since this isn't about DB levels but about the 'annoyance' levels I think this might really help. But I am 1 lowly member.[]

4 strokes will just become the next target for the complainers. Then they'll come up with a reason that electrics are dangerous too. After all, they've even complained about gliders.

You're absolutely right. That is why getting in the public eye as a positive contributor to the community is probobly our best bet. We have even thought about contacting our local tv news satation about doing a story about our history rich field. Our main concern, though, is that we can't guarantee that they will portray us in the positive light we hope for.

watch out for those TV news people!! they love a controversy and will stir s**t every chance they get.


Miloh.

In So Cal, flying fields are all but gone. You can set up a field in the most gawdawful location, some developer will build a golf course next to it, or some of those 40 room houses on postage stamp lots and you have to move again. Happened to my club field. After the second move, we ended up in the bottom of the flood control channel. Absolutely a crummy place to fly as there is a raised highway on one end, trees on the other end (not allowed to prune those!!!) and boulders and swamp all around but at the parking lot. You either land on the runway or kiss your plane goodbye.
Well, this winter mother nature stepped in where the developers could not and buried the field under 6 feet of mud, rocks, sand and debris. Now the county wont let us bulldoze it back out because of nature concerns even tho there is no nature left.
Oh, those houses in the background of this picture are sitting on our last field...

No flying before 9AM! We can't fly until 12PM!

Inverticle:
I talked to my brother in law this afternoon abt the field situation. He is a lawyer BTW, We are in Tennessee BTW, and this only applies if you own the property..... He tells me in this state there is a law in place that protect the first occupant. this is to say if you were there first and what you do is a bother to someone "provided it's legal" then they should have done better research before moving in. This he says is thrown out of court as fast as anything he has ever seen. this would allow the collage the right to protect your field if they would side with you. I'm by no means a legle professional and do not know the laws in your state, just thought it interesting. food for thought.

Good Luck, Miloh.

DrDeath, I understand land is hard to find. I live 18 miles west of chicago and land is getting gobbled up with unbelievable speed, on my street there are 5 houses this year bought by builders just to be flattened for high end housing, but forest preserve land does exist is all areas of the country and it is revenue creating land when a small chunk is used for RC flying Vs using the same land for just nature trails where people pay nothing to use it. around here 4 outa 5 flying sites are on preserve land only two sites i know of are club owned or leased. Maybe other forest preserves don't know how much revenue they could generate on a small piece of their land[sm=greedy.gif]

Cool. It's for reasons like this that I suggested that they get an attorney. Much as we joke about them, sometimes they do have value.

We are pretty confident that once these people get an atourney UVA will drop us like a bad habbit. The possible bad press from a law suit is not worth the little possitive we provide.

The entire thought line with the info I provided before is in this state most lawyers will not take a case like this because the juges through them out. If this law is the same in your state and you let the opposition know your aware of this law it will most likely end right there.

Miloh.

it might be time to move if you can

If you continue to let these people make the first moves, you are doomed. You should be able to spin this as evil home owners trying to get rid of a recreation site that has historical ties to the community, provides a learning experience for youth, etc. Instead you're letting a few selfish rich people turn you into a public nuisance.

Years ago we lost our field in Springfield, Mo. due to complaints from a neighbor. The field had been in use for 15 years at the time. The officials came out and checked the decibel levels at the field and the surrounding area and found that we were well within the law for noise. They informed the complainer of this but he was not satisfied. He started bothering every public official he could find. Any time there was a complaint, they had to come out and check us out again. They never found any problem, but they had to go through the motions just the same. It finally got to be such a bother that we all got tired of being harrassed and gave up the field.

By the time we left the field, the complainer had also move out of the area, but it was too late to save the club. We eventually found out that the complainer was a retired Marine Corp Gunnery SGT that was almost LEGALLY DEAF!! Turns out noise wasn't the problem, but just a deisre to stop anyone else from having any fun as he was bitter at the world for dealing him a bad hand.

The moral of the story is, Don't take it at face value that noise is the real problem. It may be something else that has the neighbors up in arms, like safety concerns that they don't understand.